A hook-and-loop fastener is a well-know type of fastener and because of its easy engaging/disengaging characteristic it is wildly adapted in a wide variety of fields that need to detachably fasten two articles together. For instance, as shown in FIG. 1, a hook-and-loop type fastening strap 1 used in a seat cushion of a car or a seat cushion of a sofa for detachably fastening a seat coverings (not shown) to a seat includes a substrate 2 made of a material that allow foam material to penetrate into the voids of the substrate material, such as non-woven fabric or fibrous fabric. This hook-and-loop type fastening strap 1 further includes a magnetic material layer 3 coated on the substrate 1 and a fastening member 4 bonded to the magnetic material layer 3. The fastening member 4 has a plurality of hooks 5 formed thereon and has a width narrower than that of the substrate 2. The substrate 2 has two longitudinal sidewalls 6 each formed along the sides of the fastening member 4 and having a height greater than a height of the hooks 5, so as to prevent the foam material from entering the spaces between the hooks 5 during a foaming process of a seat cushion manufacturing.
Another form of hook-and-loop type fastening strap 1′ used in a seat cushion is shown in FIG. 2 and includes a substrate 2, a magnetic material layer 3, and a fastening member 4. Instead of having two protective sidewalls, this fastening strap 1′ includes a protective layer 7 that directly and detachably engages with the hooks 5 of the fastening member 4 to provide a protective function that prevents the foam material from entering the spaces between the hooks 5 during the foaming process of a seat cushion manufacturing.
Although the above-mentioned hook-and-loop type fastening straps used in a seat cushion of a car or a seat cushion of a sofa may provide a function of detachably fixing the seat coverings onto a seat cushion, they have drawbacks and application limitations. For instance, the fixing between the above-mentioned prior art fastening straps and the seat cushion is provided merely by the joining force created by the penetration of the foam material into the voids of the substrate material, and thus an unexpected separation between the fastening straps and the seat cushion may occur due to insufficient joint force therebetween.
Additionally, because the above-mentioned prior art fastening straps are unable to bend or curve sideway, they can only be used in seat cushions that have substantially straight fixing grooves. For seat cushions having curved fixing grooves, extra processes need to be taken to allow the above-mentioned prior art fastening straps to be applied. For instance, additional cutting molds having specific curvatures that match with the curvatures of the curved fixing grooves of a specific seat cushion to which the fastening straps are to be applied need to be developed to cut the fastening straps into shapes having desired curvatures. However, this is not cost effective because a specific cutting mold needs to be developed for a curved fixing groove of a seat cushion, and if there are a number of curved fixing grooves of different curvatures in one seat cushion then a number of different cutting molds are needed to cut the fastening straps into desired shapes. Thus, the applicability of the prior art fastening straps is limited.
Moreover, traditional fastening straps are laminated structures and usually include a substrate layer, a magnetic material layer, a hook strap layer and a protection layer. Therefore, it is complex to manufacture and the manufacturing costs are high.
Therefore, there exists a need in seat cushion industry for a fastening strap that is able to provide a strong bonding between the fastening strap and the seat cushion, is capable of bending or curving sideway so as to be applicable to seat cushions having straight and curved fixing grooves without any extra processes, and has a simple structure that is easy and inexpensive to manufacture.